Waste disposal is becoming a serious problem for countries all around the world. Rapid urbanization and increase in population have resulted in increased waste generation. Key challenges in Bhutan include littering, lack of segregation at source, scarcity of land for landfills and illegal dumping of mixed waste. National Waste Inventory Survey revealed that the country’s total solid waste generation in a day was 172.16 metric tons and the per capita waste generation 0.23 kilogram a day. Waste management in sub-urban areas and rural areas has not received much attention. Presently the system of waste collection only covers urban and municipal areas and there is no specific area for waste disposal in rural areas. Open burning and dumping is still practiced. There is a continuous search for solutions to these problems.
With increasing public awareness and political awareness, solid waste management started to gain attention. There have been a variety of policy responses to the problem of solid waste. In Bhutan, policy frameworks for solid waste management have already been adopted. Some of them include National Strategy for Integrated Solid Waste Management 2007, Action Plan Waste Prevention and Management Act of Bhutan 2009, National Waste Management Strategy 2019, Waste Management and Regulation 2012. These regulations have identified lead implementing agencies who are responsible for making arrangements for dealing with waste with collaborating agencies. These regulations also impose fine and administrative actions on individuals and organizations for various offence.
However, the country has failed to implement and enforce those rules. Policies have only focused on solving present problems and failed to investigate sustainable (long-term) solutions. In most developing countries, waste management considers only two stages, collection, and final disposal (Medina et al., 2020). Present solutions include collection of dry and wet waste and dumping in the landfill. Such solutions are meant to solve the problems temporarily. Moreover, the only public-partnership initiative named Greener Way is only involved with collection of waste and recycling of pet bottles.
Despite awareness, people continue to litter and dump waste in open areas and rivers. Efforts to change individual behaviour to improve waste segregation and management are required. Behavioural economists have focused on studying and manipulating human behaviour using nudges. Bhutan needs to adopt such innovative policy initiatives. For example, experimental studies have shown that increase in incentives and penalties is associated with greater participation of the public in the recycling process. Another example of nudge is use of green defaulters which involves changing environmentally friendly options to defaults. A specific example is keeping double-sided printing as the default option in the computer. A real setting experimental study in the US showed that such green defaults prompt individuals to reduce waste generation or reusing a product to its full potential.
For semi-urban and rural areas decentralized mechanisms for managing waste have proved to be successful. One such mechanism is community-based organization initiated in Mirhajirbagh in Bangladesh. It involves formation of a waste management committee and identification of caretakers who collaboratively works with the community to reduce waste at source, segregate and collect waste. Another framework Bhutan could adopt is the Zero waste Management in Sweden which focuses on reducing landfills and recovering fuel from waste and recycling. While fuel production of waste in Bhutan is challenging given her weak technological capacity, Bhutan can emphasise on selling the waste for recycling.
While adopting a system of waste collection, segregation, and dumping is important, focus should be given on reducing waste at source and changing behaviour. It is time for the country to move from traditional approaches to innovative policy approaches.
References
Medina-Salas, V. D., González, E. C., Giraldi-Díaz, M. R., & Rosales, V. F. (2020). A successful case in waste management in developing countries. Journal of Pollution Effects and Control, 8(2). Retrieved from https://www.longdom.org/open-access/a-successful-case-in-waste-management-in-developing-countries.pdf
